FicWad

The Harry Potter universe is the creation of J.K. Rowling. This is fanfiction. The standard disclaimers apply.


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Chapter 37: Christmas at the Burrow


Tuesday, December 25, 1990


The wind whipped the snow into eddies as it blew around the odd curves of the Burrow. Despite the weather, there were enough players for a four-on-four quidditch game. The Burrow had only single hoops, and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley wouldn't allow the use of bludgers, but they could have a keeper, two chasers, and a seeker on each team. The game wasn't necessarily better with seekers, in this situation—Charlie had contrived it in order to get a look at Harry, and to a lesser extent Ginny, without them being too self-conscious about it.

He had also contrived, with the collusion of his brothers, to get Harry on the opposite team from him, where he felt he could keep a close eye on him without it looking weird. So Fred, George, Harry and Ron had faced off against Charlie, Bill, Ginny, and to their mother's annual horror, Mr. Weasley. Percy had stuck around long enough to release the snitch and throw out the first quaffle, but quickly got bored and disappeared to his room. Neville and Luna were left watching from the sidelines.

This was Harry's first visit to the Burrow, and it had been permitted only for the few hours Albus Dumbledore himself had come to visit, ostensibly to let Harry out of the house, and in reality to pressure Molly about the wards he wanted to set up. Arthur had simply declared he would go along with whatever Albus could convince Molly of, and went off to play quidditch. So far the quidditch game had gone a lot better than the conversation, and Albus was trying his best not to get flustered.

". . . be that as it may, Albus, it is still, objectively, charity. It's a gift. It's something we could never dream of affording on our own. And Harry is welcome here whenever you think it is safe for him to come. Honestly, Albus, I just don't see why you think everything is so dangerous all of a sudden. There hasn't been one peep of someone so much as saying a bad thing about the boy, let alone threatening to harm him."

"What about your own family? You and Arthur were active in the war. The Weasleys and Prewetts have been on the side of light for generations. If anything ever happened, you would be a prime target. You have seven children, and those children have friends, Molly. The wards Bill put up for you are technically excellent, but without good anchor stones they just can't be made very powerful. Good wards would give you much more time to make an escape or take a stand if the worst came to pass. Why take risks when you can protect so many all at once?"

"The war is over, Albus! Done! That boy out there ended it for us nine years ago. Why are you suddenly trying to fight it again?"

"A fair question. I can answer it only partially." He leaned back in his chair. "As you know, someone with inside information about Death Eater activities has been slipping notes to various individuals, myself included. These notes have had verifiable, actionable advice in them.

That writer knew Sirius Black was innocent and that a trial with veritaserum would clear him, and for whatever reason chose to reveal that fact this year. They knew where Peter Pettigrew was, Molly, and he had been thought dead for years.

My experience with Peter reminded me how perilously close to danger we may come without knowing it, and how cheaply we may sometimes avert it! Even in rat form, good wards would have never let him get as far as your front walk, at least without substantial time and help.

What would you have me do, Molly? Would have me ignore the notes? Because the note I got about Pettigrew only told me where to find the rat and to treat it like a Dark artifact. Nothing else. The writer counted on the fact that I was so conscientious that I would deal with it immediately. Heaven knows why. It was extremely vague. The thought certainly crossed my mind that it might have been a prank. I could have put it off for quite a while.

But I am very, very glad that I did not act unworthy of the faith they placed in me, and that what I actually did was to immediately pull my Deputy Headmistress out of the class she was teaching and go directly to your son's belongings. How long do you consider an acceptable amount of time for a Death Eater to remain lurking next to Percy? Hm? Because I sincerely hope that my answer will always be 'no longer than it takes me to get there.'"

Albus had intended merely to be emphatic, which was ordinarily enough to intimidate almost anyone, but in this case had gotten carried away, approaching actual anger. He was willing to feign a lot of things, but anger was not one of them; this was a rare sight. Molly was shaken, but not moved.

"You know I'm grateful for that. I hate the idea of that . . . thing . . . living under our roof for so long. I just don't see how spending so much on putting rocks in our yard is the answer, even if I could allow it, which I can't. If wards would be so useful, why didn't the school wards catch him? Hm? Those are supposedly some of the best in the world, are they not?"

"They are, but they are not perfect. And this incident has made that crystal clear to me. Which is why I have been examining the Hogwarts wards very closely, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. There are many more things than just animagi that I would like to be able to catch. But warding the Burrow is almost infinitely less complicated."

Luna was passing through, presumably on her way back from the bathroom. She had stopped to listen in, and had been standing silently behind Mrs. Weasley for some time now. Albus had decided not to let on that he saw her, just to see what she would do. He had never met the girl before today.

". . . and it seems scandalous to pay for it out of poor Harry's trust. How on earth could you propose such a thing?"

"I am not, in fact, proposing such a thing. Sirius Black would be more than happy to cover it if you let him. There are . . . others who would help if I asked, I'm sure, and do so anonymously."

"I don't want anonymous charity! That's even worse! Not knowing what people might think of us?"

"Headmaster Dumbledore?"

"Yes, Luna? Also, Professor, please. 'Headmaster' is a little too formal for me."

"Professor, I think your problem is that you are talking about ward stones and Mrs. Weasley is talking about the idea of ward stones, and you only think you are talking to each other, but you're not. The way you're talking, she'll be bothered by them even if no one ever knows about them but her, even if they never get triggered." Molly had turned around in her chair, craning her neck uncomfortably to look at Luna. She was used to the girl not making any sense, and was waiting for her to complete a reasonably sized block of nonsense before sending her back out to the snow.

"I suggested to Mrs. Weasley that since it was an idea that bothered her, she could paint it pink or blue. But she could also hide it in the ground, or at the bottoms of little ponds, right? Or you could get one full of holes for the hedgehogs to live in. Neville has some exploding moon creeper seeds he wants to try on ours once the last frost is past! I bet he could find something Mrs. Weasley would like, if that would help."

"Luna, you're a sweet girl, and you mean well, at least as best as I can tell, but you should go play and let us be."

Luna acted like she hadn't heard. Molly had at one point been convinced the girl had a real hearing problem, to the point of suggesting to Xenophilius to have the girl's hearing checked. The healers found nothing wrong with her ears, so Molly suspected the poor girl had something off in the head.

"Mrs. Weasley, remember that Professor Dumbledore is thinking of an actual stone, not your idea of a stone. He's a general giving armor to his troops. He wants you to live longer and kill more Death Eaters for him if the war comes." Luna had said this with an air of great authority, talking slowly as if to someone who was having trouble understanding. Both adults looked mildly horrified.

"You see, he's giving you a shield, not a full set of plate mail and a horse. So he's just being a little bit careful right now, not getting ready for war. He's not ordering a cavalry charge yet. I assume he doesn't plan on doing that tomorrow or the next day, either. Does that help?"

"Luna, dear, please. I'm sorry we weren't better at keeping our conversation to ourselves. I'm glad you don't think we are, as you say, preparing for war, but you shouldn't have to worry about these things at all! Now, Professor Dumbledore and I do need to finish our conversation without interruptions."

"Actually, Molly, I'd like to ask her a few questions. In fact, I insist upon it, because to be honest I don't know what Miss Lovegood meant by all that either. Perhaps unlike you, I would rather like to find out."

"Albus, it's all nonsense. Her father fills her head with all of these ridiculous notions—I so wish he would stop. You shouldn't encourage her!"

"I will be my own judge of what notions are ridiculous. Now, I am keenly interested in what this young lady has to say, and I would take it as a personal favor if you would humor me in hearing her to the end." His tone of voice made it clear this was not a matter for debate. "Now, Luna. You said you do not think I am preparing for war. Is that correct?"

"Yes, Professor! That's what I said."

"Regarding the wards and anchor stones I have proposed to place here at the burrow—you have analogized these to a shield, issued by a general to a soldier in their army. Do I misrepresent you so far?"

"No, that's what I said. Or at least, what I meant to say. Your version was clearer, I think."

Albus smiled. "Thank you, Luna. I am genuinely interested in your thoughts on this matter, however they might be expressed. What I would like you to do for me, if you would, is to describe, in detail if possible, what exactly you had in mind when you compared the shield to 'a set of plate mail and a horse'."

He had used his professor voice, and Luna responded, as he had hoped, as if she were in class.

"Oh. Oh. You are worried about the Weasleys because they will be the first target when Voldemort returns." Mrs. Weasley gasped.

Dumbledore waved his hand, saying, "no, Luna, please continue. I happen to agree, although Voldemort himself is not necessarily who I am concerned about." This was clearly not something Mrs. Weasley was expecting to hear.

Luna started in confidently, as if this were a test she had studied extensively for.

"Now, if you were actually preparing for war, you'd have to protect territory, and not just targets. So you would be warding all of Ottery St. Catchpole, and all of Godric's Hollow, and all of Hogsmeade, and probably all of Diagon Alley, but not the Ministry because they're useless and already full of spies. You would do the regular wards of course, everything you could afford that worked on that scale, including anti-apparation and anti-portkey wards for as far out as you could. And those would be a bunch of overlapping ones, so they'd be harder to take down, and you would control them yourself, or maybe a few trusted officers would, so all the residents who weren't on our side couldn't do an inside job. So you'd poke holes in them for the residents only, if you trusted them, but block everything else, including Fudge's army of house elf inferi which he doesn't have. Also, you'd make the wards take anyone trying to apparate or portkey in, and dump them in the lake, where the
wyvern-turtles will eat them.

You would make everything you could unbreakable, fireproof, earthquake-proof, and anything-proof . . . houses, windows, fences, trees, rocks, outdoor potted plants, sidewalks . . . you know, everything, not just stuff that looks important.

You'd also have detectors set up somehow, although I don't really understand how those work. But you'd want as much warning of an attack as you could, so you could mobilize everyone who you had trained to fight. That is, you would have trained everyone to fight if they had to, already, without pretending their age mattered when it didn't. And you would have gone through scenarios to test them just like you're testing me now.

And you'd need to have your own version of the floo network that Fudge's bottled eyeballs weren't watching, so you could go from place to place when it turned out the attack was a diversion.

You'd want to have ways to slow the other army down, or force them to take a different path than they wanted. So that would be the ring of whomping willows, for instance. But I think they'd get past those eventually.

Then you have the exploding gnomes on the lawn, and the spitting gargoyles on all the buildings, and the animated trees ridden by tame bowtruckles who would drop acromantulas on the enemy. If they were in the air, your swarm of badger-darters would try to drain the blood from their eyes, so they'd have to land then. Then the life-size, magic-resistant, iron nundu statues would come to life and use their poison breath to drive the Death Eaters into the town square, where the ground would open and swallow them up and the flobberworms would lay their eggs in them!

So, um, those are a few things you would be doing if it were an actual war, just off the top of my head. I don't think anyone has ever listened to me for that long before. Did I do okay?"

There was a moment of stunned silence; Luna was pretty used to those. Dumbledore pressed gamely ahead. "It was an excellent answer, but now I want you to switch sides, and pretend you are the Death Eaters, or whoever you like, and tell me how you would attack the defenses you just described." He smiled his best professorial smile, ignoring Molly's glares. Mrs. Weasley wasn't even looking at Luna anymore, just waiting for Dumbledore to finish so she could get on with telling him why he was wrong.

"Okay. I guess traditionally Dark armies use Dark creatures, right? They go to everyone the humans don't like, and get them all together. Werewolves, vampires, heliopaths, house elves, hags, giants, dementors. Maybe goblins again. They always use inferi and the imperius curse, to turn the other side against itself.

You might just be trying to keep the enemy—that is, us—busy, leaving you free to do something else. So if you have something big and deadly, even if it's not Dark—like dragons or manticores—that's like having a whole bunch of extra Death Eaters, and those are wizards that won't have to fight the trees or the nundu statues. I guess if you want to capture the town without destroying it, you don't use the dragons or giants. Dark lords don't usually use siege equipment, maybe since it makes too good a target, but Baba Yaga had that hut on legs. It might be good in a battle. I don't know.

For the Death Eaters themselves, since you know the town has a lot of close range defenses, you try not to get in too close, or try not to get hit. You always want to use invisibility or confusion charms—put them on everything in your army that you can, unless it needs to be visible to be scary.

So, from the air, you go higher than the wards and drop anything that will fall through. Preferably something with lots of teeth and a parachute, or that explodes.

In one of the big wars the muggles had they used a lot of poison gas. You can find some equivalent the wards won't block, and wind won't blow away. Maybe you just use it to keep the town inside its own wards, but there are lots of ways to do that. Then you get your spies to take down the wards from the inside, of course, but you do that first if you can, by surprise. Maybe you were there to start with, maybe through the floo, or via house elf if they forgot that.

Then there are big things that only a Dark wizard would try, like controlling the weather, earthquakes, floods, herds of stampeding erumpets, or something that affects the whole town. Dark rituals. Fiendfyre.

You'd try to create as many distractions as you possibly could before attacking your real target. Just set things on fire, release your dragons or manticores or giants, make it so someone has to respond even if you aren't there anymore. Go after muggles if you think the good wizards will want to protect them, but won't also have the resources to fortify say, downtown London. Maybe some Dark wizards want to keep the Statute of Secrecy, though?

So, I guess, overall, in summary, the defenses might prevent a surprise attack and give the people time to escape, but you could probably force some sort of a fight. When you did, you'd want to use tricks to substitute for having a big army, like making the enemy be busy with something other than you, or getting them to actually go somewhere else entirely. Unless you had a big army, like I guess Grindelwald did? I don't think you are expecting a really big war like that again.

Is that enough?"

"That's also excellent, but—"

"Albus!"

"Molly! I have a reason for doing this. I'm trying to prove a point to you. Please listen. Now, Luna, I want you to imagine you are back in charge of defending Ottery St. Catchpole. How do you stop a bunch of giants from destroying it?"

"They're spell-resistant, right? So regular magic won't work. You might be able to knock them over if you can bind their legs with a magical chain. You can stab them with sharp things—conjured weapons, anything with long teeth, spikes you put under their feet. Actually muggle weapons would work very well on giants, but wizards might not want to use them."

"Vampires?"

"Not very powerful. Have everyone keep a lot of garlic around?"

"Werewolves?"

"A lot like vampires. Like a very fast, very dangerous wizard who you don't want to get bitten by. Train everyone to recognize them, and set extra guards during a full moon."

"Dementors?"

"You make sure everyone knows the patronus charm and teach people to recognize the effects. The best defense is to be indoors with the dementors on the outside, I think. So, you would teach kids to run to the nearest available house, and have everyone recognize their neighbors, and have house wards let them in, so they get to safety right away. If you can have a portkey that can only take one particular person, give everyone a few of those. Not having emergency portkeys is weird. Dementors are hard to deal with, I think. Early warning systems for them would be really helpful. I don't have a good answer, but I'd get somebody smart to look for one."

"That's actually one of your best answers so far! How would you handle wizards on brooms who were trying to attack from the air, maybe from a long way off? Assume a swarm of animals won't do."

"One thousand invisible bludgers that are also on fire."

"I suppose that's one way of doing it. Okay, one last question for now, but don't go anywhere when you're done. What would you do about Dark wizards attacking muggles as a diversion?"

"It's supposed to make me feel overwhelmed, so I wouldn't let it. Sometimes you can't save everyone and you have to choose who to save. I would probably save Ottery St. Catchpole entirely rather than put half my defenses here and half elsewhere. If you're besieged, though, you will eventually lose if you don't hunt the enemy down and attack them. Maybe you can use magic to track them down?

If you can prepare traps, like getting the wards that shoot up right away to keep the enemy from escaping, and if you can detect an attack soon enough, and you have a team of people ready to go, you can use the enemy's attacks against them. Instead of just saving the town, you'd be trying to kill all the Death Eaters that are there. Maybe you could learn to dispel the imperius curse without it costing you time, so you can go after the real ones.

I don't know how to do any of that, of course, but I assume somebody does, or could figure it out if you told them about it now instead of after the war starts."

"Again, a truly excellent answer. Stay there. Now Molly, I hope you see why there are wards on the Lovegoods' place, at least."

"Come now, Albus, a lot of that was her usual nonsense, and the rest was a sign she's disturbed. She shouldn't have to think about all those things. It was all impractical!"

"Expensive or unorthodox is not always the same thing as impractical. I didn't tell her she had a limited budget, remember. She might have a few misconceptions and genuinely fanciful notions, and she did not get into the outright cruelty of the Death Eaters, but her answers were shaped in large part by my questions. Maybe they were bad questions, but they were good answers to those questions.

Overall, from a military standpoint, her ideas were sound, and I shall be sure to consult her if I ever need to invade, say, a medium-sized country. Although I, too, wonder how she was able to come up with all that so easily."

Albus looked expectantly at Luna, who bounced happily. "Oh, that's just because the anonymous note-writer told me to. They must have known you would ask! I'm so glad I studied for it."

This was not within the range of answers that either Albus or Molly was expecting.

With a twinkle in his eye, Dumbledore started asking about the note writer, but as soon as his mental probe touched her, she screamed and collapsed.

"Please don't try to read my mind, Professor! It's not a very nice place and no one but me should have to go in there."

He was stuck in Luna's memory of watching her mother die; he pulled himself free before it could repeat. "Luna, I am truly sorry. Are you alright?"

"Yes, I think. No one has ever tried that before."

"I had only wanted to make sure the note-writer was not somehow manipulating you in a way you weren't revealing. I apologize for the intrusion, both in its impulsiveness and, apparently, my heavy-handedness. I pride myself on having a light touch. Please believe me when I say I would never knowingly hurt a student. I won't try to do that again unless it is a real emergency, okay?"

"Okay. Just try to warn me, if you have to. It really hurt."

"Would you mind telling me what exactly the note writer said, and what you did?"

"A few days ago they sent me a note. One of the things they said was that they wanted me to be able to fight, in case Voldemort or the Death Eaters came back and I needed to protect my friends. So I read all my father's books on defense, and all his military history. That was actually a lot of books but I finished them. And then I went over to Neville's place, and his parents were aurors . . ."

"That will do. I get the picture. Thank you. I was particularly pleased to hear you say you would simply go ask questions of people who knew things you did not. This is very wise of you, and I wish more wizards thought like that . . . I might ask you later if you had anyone in particular in mind.

Now, Molly, as I was saying, everything Luna said was sound, give or take a creature that might not exist, and given the context of the questions I asked. If you could implement her ideas, they might not be a winning strategy by themselves, but combined with the right elements they could be very effective. Terrifying, actually."

"But you can't implement most of them! They're crazy!"

"Is that so.

Hm.

In any case, Molly, Luna is a remarkable girl who I think is well worth putting extra effort into protecting. But she isn't unique in that regard, nor, I suspect, is she unique in her creativity. Certainly I do not wish her to have to think about war, and on that point I think you and I are not at odds." Albus looked at Molly questioningly; she nodded. "That said, it is folly not to recognize her future value to us, given the kind of insight she has just demonstrated.

Alas, I am making my point in a roundabout way. Let me try a different approach.

My experiment was an ad hoc one, born of impulse, made up as I went along. I had hoped, once I heard Luna's first few ideas, to discourage you from underestimating the children here.

Would you care to repeat the experiment? Hm? I think you know how it would go. If not, it would be fascinating to test!

Consider, if you will, that many of her doubts concerned wards. Shall I call in your eldest son, who is one of Gringotts' top curse breakers, and the best student of wards that Professor Flitwick has seen in years? We could have Luna go over all her ideas with Bill, and see what they could come up with working together.

Or perhaps that wouldn't be good enough—she was more focused on creatures than on wards. Why not call in your next oldest son, who gets top marks in Care of Magical Creatures and excellent ones in Defense? He is, incidentally, the only student Hagrid has ever come to me about, asking for me to give them permission to go into the Forbidden Forest alone. I said no on principle, of course, but I have no doubt that Charlie's ability to navigate it unscathed is second only to my own, and his knowledge of it is second to no one in living memory. Perhaps you would like to hear what he had to say about Luna's creatures? Hm?

Or perhaps you think your eldest two are exceptions. I wonder if your third would change your mind. You might underestimate Percy, but I don't. You know, he is one of the only students to pay attention in History of Magic. Certainly the only one in his class. I bet he's read a lot about wizarding wars, and would have exceptional insight as to how and why the various magical beings have historically aligned with Dark Lords. In fact, I bet he's one of the few people you know who can name more than two Dark Lords, and nearly all of those who can name three are counting me. I also expect he could tell Luna to what extent the Ministry controlled the floo, which wards were dependent on the Ministry, and exactly how the Death Eaters would try to infiltrate it.

Now, I would do everything in my power to stop you from trying it with Fred and George. It would break my heart, because it could never be undone. If I had asked them instead of Luna, they would not have stopped to see if it was enough. They would have turned old and grey and would still be answering the question! You know it's true. I've looked into their minds, Molly, and they have no inkling that their pranks and tricks could also have more dangerous uses. May they stay that way for as long as possible.

Now, I don't know anything about your other children,—"

"Professor Dumbledore?"

"Yes Luna?"

"Ron would know how the bludgers worked. Also you can't beat him at chess."

Dumbledore was smiling—this was better than he expected, and he was an optimist. "I hope to test that claim some day. Thank you, Luna. And what about the youngest Weasley?"

"Mrs. Weasley has done such a good job pretending to be overprotective that Ginny feels like she's never good or competent enough for her mother. Ginny would charge right at the Death Eaters and take them on all single-handedly. She can be kind of scary."

"Albus!"

"Not yet, Molly!! I will finish. Thank you, Luna. I suppose I may look forward to seeing Ginny in my office as frequently as her brothers, then? Now, just for good measure, what about the other children out there?"

"Neville would know dozens of other things to plant besides whomping willows."

"And Harry?"

"Harry has very good luck, and Fate follows him around. He makes friends easily, if he actually wants to. People will listen to him."

"Fascinating. Thank you. I think you have made my next decision for me, in fact. If you would both wait here, I will return in a moment." Dumbledore rose, and strode out the back door into the snow.

Outside, the game was going at full speed. According to Weasley family rules, new games were started when the snitch was caught, and no one really kept a running score. This meant that Harry and Ginny had been getting quite a workout.

Ginny had the advantage of experience in dodging all of her brothers; Harry had the advantage of a new Firebolt. Harry had reliably caught the snitch, but it was a close call every time, usually involving Ginny crashing into him and knocking them both off their brooms into the snow (no one dared mention their suspicion that Ginny could have caught the snitch if she wanted, but was more interested in catching Harry). Harry decided quidditch was a lot more fun in the snow, since it both reduced visibility and provided some cushioning when you fell.

No one had noticed that Albus Dumbledore had joined Neville on the sidelines. He conjured a whistle and blew it. Everyone stopped and looked at him. The snitch, too, whizzed into view, effectively taunting the seekers now that play was stopped.

"I would like to borrow Ron for a little while, if you don't mind. You will all have to rearrange your teams, or convince Neville or Percy to play."

This was met by a great deal of talking, which Dumbledore simply ignored.

"Hi Professor! Does mum need help with something?"

"Not precisely. As you know, I have been attempting—so far in vain—to convince your mother to permit the installation of anchored wards here at the Burrow. Nominally, I am bringing you in to demonstrate a point in our dispute. But," he whispered, "really it's just for fun. Come now!"

Eventually the four of them were sitting in the kitchen. Mrs. Weasley looked irritated and resigned.

"Ron, dear, I'm sorry you got dragged into this. Here, have some cocoa. I know you'd rather be outside playing, but Professor Dumbledore seems determined to push whatever point it is he is making. I can't say I understand it. I suppose you should play along and be polite."

"Thank you Molly. Now, Ron, while your mother and I were talking, Luna walked by and made some intriguing remarks on the subject of wards. One of them was to compare me to a general issuing shields to his troops. I can't say I'm happy with the characterization, of course." A brief look of consternation crossed his face. "She then went on to say that it wasn't as if I had been 'giving out horses and sets of plate mail'. Puzzled by this, I asked her what that would mean in real world terms, and was rewarded with a long and . . . fascinating discourse on magical security and wizarding wars in general.

I then asserted that while Luna's . . . shall we say, creativity . . . might seem unusual, we would probably be very surprised if we had posed the question to some of your older brothers. I, being a meddling and mysterious wizard who is granted some leeway given his old age, have taken the liberty of selecting the person who I do not know and who Luna said the least about. The least Weasley, if you will, in terms of our attention so far.

Please humor an old man and, as your mother says, play along. Now, I suppose I have two questions. The first is—actually, I have a request before we begin. Please try not to discuss this conversation with Fred and George. Your mother and I are concerned that they would never stop thinking about it, and for now we would prefer they concentrate on pranks and not fighting Dark Lords, just for their own sanity. Okay?"

"I'll try, I suppose. I don't think you could get them to stick to only one project if you tried, though. They would probably just use what they learned about Dark Lords to make better pranks."

"We can only hope you are correct." Dumbledore sighed. "Now, my first question is whether you agree with Luna's analogy, that the wards are a mere shield, metaphorically speaking?"

"Sure. It's just one thing."

"What, then, would you consider to be really serious on my part—a real equivalent of gearing up for war."

Ron's demeanor changed. He leaned forward a little and looked alert, the way Molly had seen him at the beginning of a chess match. She sighed inwardly and resigned herself to an awful spectacle.

"May I ask questions?"

"Of course. If I can't tell you the true answers, I'll make something up for you to work with."

"Okay! Who's the enemy?"

"Perhaps the Death Eaters again, or the same group under another name. Presumably stirred up by a powerful leader. A new Dark Lord. Since you are familiar with him, let's play as if there's a possibility of Voldemort coming back. Does that work?"

"Do we know names?"

"Let's say we know a half dozen who are free, and another half dozen currently in Azkaban."

"So, the Malfoys in the first category, and Scabbers in the second?"

"I will say yes."

"Who are the most dangerous ones?"

"Probably the ones in Azkaban, actually. The LeStranges, Dolohov, Rookwood, Pettigrew. Also any Dark Lord they found."

"Let's ignore You-Know-Who for now. How secure is Azkaban?"

"I don't know. You tell me!"

"Okayyyy. Well, I know it's in the North Sea, and guarded by both aurors and Dementors. So we'd ask how easy it is to attack from outside, and how easy from the inside, and we'd want to know how loyal the guards were, and whether they were good fighters. Does the Ministry control the Dementors?"

"No."

"So what are they doing there?"

"They are there voluntarily, because it is a good source of food."

"That's stupid." Ron stopped to think for a moment. "Can the Ministry get enough aurors to Azkaban in time to stop the Dementors if they switched sides?"

"Probably not. Let's say definitely no."

"Does our side have a way of getting there quickly, and the power to stop the Dementors?"

"Are you telling me you do not consider the Ministry to be on our side?"

"Why would they be?"

"Okay, let's assume we aren't trusting them. And the answer is I don't know, you tell me."

"Right. Let's come back to this. What are our resources?"

"Everyone here today. Most of the staff at Hogwarts. About a dozen other witches and wizards. A lot of money. Knowledge, some of it unique, and good libraries. Our own wits. Time to prepare. A few other things you will have to get at by asking."

"Right. What about the Death Eaters who are free—Malfoy and the like?"

"Everyone knows they bear the Dark Mark, but they claim to have received it under the imperius curse. They cannot be forced to take veritaserum, either because of political reality, or immunity. Some of them are powerful, influential wizards with deep pockets."

"So we keep an eye on them as best as we are able, and learn everything we can about them. Do anything we can to weaken them in the meantime. Remove their political support. We're the good guys, right? So we can't just go in and kill them, or the ones in Azkaban. Has Voldemort been resurrected yet?"

"No."

"Is it easy to do, or can we stop them?"

"Hm. What if we could stop some methods but not others?"

"Do we have a preference? As to the methods?"

"Let's say we do. I don't want to make up explanations for those, though, to avoid spilling real-world secrets about other things I've got up my sleeve. Let's assume if we act reasonably intelligently, our Dark Lord be stuck with his dispreferred method of coming to power, and require some time and trouble to match the abilities of past Dark Lords. Any Dark Lord would grow in power, of course, left unchecked."

"Right. Can he make himself invulnerable?"

"No Dark Lord has ever done that. Voldemort might believe himself to be immortal, but he is wrong. Most Dark Lords will lie about that fact until the end."

"How tough is he?"

"If it's a good day for me, I can drive him off, if we are going one on one."

"There's only one of you, and only one of him. Your value is really just as leaders and for difficult magical stuff. You're kings, not rooks. He exposes himself to being defeated every time he appears in public, so he's either got a reason to be brave, or he's nuts."

"Hm. Let's make this difficult and add some dark magic. Assume he can keep coming back, and stopping him from getting new bodies when one dies is very difficult, but not impossible. Nevertheless, most Dark Lords are very reckless, yes."

"What are his resources?"

"The Death Eaters I mentioned, and a steady stream of new recruits if he tries. A lot of money. The Ministry if he can take it over. Various Dark creatures, if we let him convince them. People under the imperius curse. Inferi."

Ron sat for a full minute this time, after giving a 'let me think' gesture.

"Can we win a fight against all the Death Eaters at once, if we can catch them?"

"If the ones in Azkaban stay there, right now, yes. But let's assume it won't stay that way for long if they decide try to take over the country again."

"So we'd lose, as things stand. We'd need more people. Ones who can fight. There must be good people who would fight if they were good enough to have a chance of winning. You're the headmaster of Hogwarts, so if you weren't doing everything you could to identify the good guys and teach them to fight—no messing around, 'she's too young, blah blah' or only picking a few people—if you weren't doing that, I'd say you didn't think a war was coming. But you could do that, if you needed to. I mean, you convinced mum to let you keep talking!

We'd also need ways to find the Death Eaters, wherever they are, to find them when they move, so we can react right away when they attack. Some Death Eater leaves their hideout's wards with a Dark Mark on their arm, or whatever, we want to know where they are at all times and be able to kill or capture them on the spot. Don't give them a chance to impress recruits, don't let them scare people. That would be the next thing I would pour resources into, even if I didn't think it was possible yet."

"I notice you have said nothing about wards at all."

"Sure, put 'em up. If I were you I would have just done it when mum wasn't looking and hidden them."

"Ron!"

"Hey, don't look at me! This is between you two. But Bill says wards just buy you time. I'd use the Fidelius on everything I cared about if I were worried. Make stuff unplottable if you can. Much harder to break wards you can't find. The only wards you want the enemy to find are the ones that set off your ambush."

"And the ones I am proposing here?"

"I guess they're like a lock on the door. Crazy not to have it, of course."

"Luna certainly seems to think so."

"She's right."

"Well, Molly, there you go! The wards are a minor precaution. Thank you Ron, Luna, I think that's enough for today." To Molly's relief, he at last shooed them outside. "There. Fascinating children. You and Arthur are very, very fortunate . . . Ah, well. I think I will not push the issue further today. I hope you found my little demonstration at least somewhat enlightening. I know I did."

With little further ado, and without giving Mrs. Weasley any further opportunities to fuss at him, Dumbledore said his goodbyes and flooed back to Hogwarts.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


After coming in from the cold, Fred and George returned to their room to get changed for Christmas dinner. There was a small pile of packages on their desk.


"What have we here?" asked George, shutting the door behind them.

"A lot of people wanted to give us things without anyone else finding out?"

"Looks like it was specifically mum—this one's from Dumbledore. The card says 'Please don't let your mother know about this until I am safely out of the house. Merry Christmas, Albus Dumbledore'."

"He left half an hour ago, so I guess he's safe enough. What is it?"

George tore it open. It was an inch-thick muggle book on juggling. They read the inscription together:


For Fred and George Weasley, Christmas 1990.

I have found a second set of exercises for you! I think you will find that mastering the techniques in this book will go a long ways towards improving your spellwork. You ought to be able to transfigure all of the equipment called for in it. Please do stop into my office periodically to share your progress!

I normally do not give presents to students, but occasionally I make exceptions. I expect you to be considerate of other students and use discretion when discussing this.

Albus Dumbledore


"Dad will be thrilled! I wonder what he thinks mum's problem will be?"

"No idea—maybe he expects us to break things?"

"Or just scare her. So what are all the rest of these, and how did everyone get into our room today without us noticing?"


The rest of the gifts turned out also to be books. There were a lot of them. These included books on occlumency (Tonks—somewhat mysterious, since they didn't really know her), wilderness survival (Charlie), and wards (Bill). Sirius had sent a half dozen more that he considered critical pranking skills, plus a guide to magical home repairs and a muggle one on bells and change ringing. It was still an impressive pile with all the wrapping paper (now concealed under Fred's bed) off.


"I suppose we should hide the others, and take the one from Dumbledore downstairs to show dad."

"Oh," said George, flipping through it, "I think we should definitely make some of these club things first and go down there with them."

"Here, uh, let's see if we can make them out of these balls?"

"Looks good to me."

"Me too."

"Now what are we supposed to do with it?"

"Throw it at each other, apparently."

"Let me see that. Huh. Huh. Okayyy. Oh yes, Dad will love this."


They tried passing the club and found it to be harder to catch than it looked.


"Maybe we should start with the balls."

"Less dangerous."

"We don't want Dumbledore getting too many howlers from mum."

"Wait, he's gotten them from her before?"

"Didn't he get one after that time with Charlie and the Ukrainian water gryphon that Kettleburn said was tame?"

"Oh, right! And that python thing, and the plague eel . . ."

". . . and, what was it, the venom-spitting desert eagle?"

"Yeah. And the hippogriff—"

"—no, that one was Hagrid, not Kettleburn."

"Dumbledore still got the howler, though, right?"

"Oh. Right."

"So, no throwing things at dinner, then."

"Sad."

"Most definitely."